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Thursday, October 01, 2009

Gmail Tips

Before I share with you the article I found last month on the DLM Blog, I'll share with you why I made the switch a few years ago.

When I first became active online, Gmail wasn't around. And then it was by invite only!

So I had free email accounts with Yahoo and Microsoft (HotMail).

When I set up my first customized domain name it was also with Yahoo. I was a strong advocate of Yahoo products.

Then, the longer I had an email address, the more cluttered with spam it became. Today estimates are that over 90% of email is spam. And Yahoo couldn't handle it. The Yahoo spam filters were catching some, but not all of the spam.

When it became overwhelming to clean out my Yahoo email every day, I began using a gmail account that I reserved and at first simply used it as a spam filter. Now with the added features that Google has added to their email program, I can send all my email into my Gmail account and all of it gets filtered!

I'm sure most of you would agree that Gmail has revolutionized the way we communicate and manage information via email. If you doubt it then it means that you are yet to exploit the extraordinary features of this email app to the fullest.

This article explores some of the outstanding Gmail features and tricks which make this tool a must have for anyone using email to communicate. The features discussed here will also help long time Gmail users to dig deeper and get the most out of this amazing service.

Consolidate multiple email accounts into one Gmail accountThis is probably the most important reason why one should make the switch if he is using a different email service. With Gmail you don't have to worry about checking your different email accounts. You can consolidate all the multiple inboxes into one Gmail account.

While the option to combine other email accounts into Gmail was always there, recently Gmail made the process a cakewalk by introducing the import option in the settings. It's super easy now to use Gmail as your one stop email service.

Learn to use filters and labels effectivelyNo other email service lets you filter and organize emails the way Gmail does. Using "Filters" and "Labels" in Gmail, you could always keep unimportant emails out of your inbox and be much more efficient in email management.

Make use of multiple Gmail addresses you get with one accountThis is a gem. And if you didn't know about this, here's the surprise - with Gmail you actually get an unlimited number of different email addresses. Yes, unlimited! How? Well abc@gmail.com is same as a.bc@gmail.com and abc+def@gmail.com. More on this here.

Oh, and abc@gmail.com is also same as abc@googlemail.com. Awesome feature, isn't it? This feature could be used in so many ways. Like in this article, the Digital Inspiration blog points out how you could use one email for multiple twitter accounts. That's just one use. There could be many more such tricks. Get the picture?

Use Gmail LabsIn my opinion, the next best thing the Gmail team has done after launching Gmail is introducing Gmail Labs. I wasn't gung-ho about it initially but when the different labs add-ons started rolling out, I was completely speechless. Gmail became more amazing each day.

Use Browser add-onsIf Firefox is your primary browser (it should be if it isn't), then you could also install certain add-ons which add more functionality to Gmail. Here is an article which talks about some of the best add-ons for Gmail available.

Make Gmail your information centerIf you were to ask me the name of one person who has exploited Gmail more than anyone else, I would instantly say Steve Rubel. The man has written some great articles on how he uses the various features of Gmail to organize information efficiently. One such article is about how he transformed Gmail into his personal nerve center. It's an excellent read.

Hope you like the tricks. If you know of some other cool ways to use Gmail, do share them in the comments.